Royal Garden Party / AGM

Royal Garden Party and AGM pictures

FROM RAGS TO RICHES

It was with some trepidation and considerable anticipation that numerous numbers of ladies exited Norfolk early morning of 2nd June, these included three ladies from Poringland WI. As our journey continued we were becoming anxious as we realized we were going to be rather late reaching our destination. Would we have time to change from our Rags to Riches?

Upon reaching the big smoke we quickly found taxis to transport us to our Hotel, still anxious that we would be late for our final destination. 

Yes, we were in London to attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, we managed to ‘shed’ our Rags and don our Riches to arrive at the Palace. Pam Cooper – President, Joan Fountain – Vice President and Lesley Sanders – Hon Secretary there to represent PoringlandWI along with 8,000 other ladies from England & Wales. We were there to celebrate the Centenary of the WI at the invitation of the NFWI Board of Trustees, by graceful permission of Majesty the Queen. The Party was to be hosted by the Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, with Duchess of Wessex, Duchess of Goucester & Princess Alexandra in attendance. The weather was quite good, if a little windy - hats seemed to prefer to roll round the lawn to staying on their owners’ heads. A very enjoyable afternoon was had by all. 

The evening saw many of the ladies returning home, including Pam, who was to make sure final arrangements had been completed for the screening of the Annual General Meeting from the Royal Albert Hall on the 4th June. Poringland WI had invited a number of WI’s from the local area to join them in the Community Centre for this event. Lesley & Joan remained in London to attend the meeting.  Wednesday saw them relaxing and enjoying a visit to Kensington Palace, where they spent some time looking round the Palace, this was followed by a little gentle retail therapy.

On Thursday we were off to the Royal Albert Hall along with 5,000 other WI ladies. Her Majesty the Queen, who is President of Sandringham WI opened the proceedings, she was attended by the Princess Royal, an associate member and the Countess of Wessex who is a member of Buckingham Federation. After a very busy meeting we returned to our hotel for a meal, prior to travelling back to Norfolk, we arrived late evening after a very enjoyable if not hectic few days attending these Historic events.

Poringland WI are always pleased to welcome visitors to their meetings, which are held in the Community Centre on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7.30 pm. Contact details can be found in this magazine.

May meeting - Our Birthday meal at Caistor Hall.

Wednesday 13th May 2015

Our May meeting is often a special occasion, as it is our birthday month. This year, instead of a normal meeting, we treated ourselves to a meal out at Caistor Hall. It was a lovely time to catch up and chat with friends in a relaxed manner. Personally, this made a change to having a speaker, but sometimes it is nice to simply have a good meal with good friends. The raffle prizes were well appreciated by those who won them. The evening was enjoyable, the food was good and the company was great! Even the broken table was laughed about and will probably turn into an anecdote for the Poringland WI memories.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday July 8th 2015 at 1930hrs, back in our usual surroundings of the Community Centre. Our speaker will be Nicola Werden who will be talking about Boats of the Mediterranean. Our exhibition will be holiday snaps. It promises to be an eventful evening, hopefully with some laughs and new information.

Visitors are always welcome at our meetings.  If there are any queries, please contact Pam Cooper, President on 01508 491674 or Lesley Sanders, Secretary on 01508 492155.

Samantha Mosedale